1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to a beverage dispensing apparatus and, more particularly, to a beverage dispensing apparatus of the type in which several different beverages are dispensed from a single beverage dispensing head by pressing an appropriate button.
2. Description Of The Relevant Art
Hand-held beverage dispensers which provide the operator with the ability to dispense a number of different beverages by merely pressing an appropriate button have become quite popular. An example of such a beverage dispensing apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,810 to Hanson, which discloses the use of dual-valve valve stems connected to each button. One of the valve elements controls fluid flow through a soda channel, and the other valve element controls the flow of fluid through a syrup channel. Each button operates the two valves to control the passage of soda and syrup from the pressurized beverage component source to the nozzle. Because of the numerous syrup and soda passageways required, the number of beverages which may be accommodated in a chosen size dispensing head is limited.
One attempt to provide a system wherein a single soda or water valve is associated with and serves a plurality of syrup valves is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,421 to Schilling. In that device, the several syrup valves are arranged in a satellite array about the single common soda or water valve, and a bridging mechanism extends from each of the syrup valves to the soda or water valve so that manual operation of a syrup valve automatically results in operation of the soda or water valve. In addition, the soda or water valve may be independently operated, i.e., operated separately from any of the syrup valves, so that soda or water may be dispensed without syrup. One disadvantage of this device is that the number of syrup valves which may be coupled to the soda valve is limited by the number of buttons that can be arranged in a satellite array.
Another attempt to provide a system wherein a single soda or water valve is associated with and serves a plurality of syrup valves is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,378 to DeMan. In that device, a plate is rigidly mounted to the soda valve stem and extends over a plurality of syrup valve stems. The plate has an aperture disposed over each syrup valve stem, and a button is associated with each valve stem. Depressing any syrup button also depresses the soda valve stem, and both syrup and soda valves open. On the other hand pressing the soda button opens only the soda valve. For controlling the flow of beverages which are not mixed with soda, the plate includes cutout portions sized so that, when a button associated with a cutout portion is depressed, the button does not contact the plate. Therefore, only the beverage associated with that button is delivered from the dispensing unit.
Conventional beverage dispensing units typically have mixing problems which result from unequal opening response characteristics of the valves due to flexing of the bridging mechanism. The end result is that the proper proportion of syrup and soda is not mixed, and the drink does not taste right.
In all beverage dispensers of this type, the proportion of soda to syrup must be controlled for each beverage. This is commonly done through the use of one or more brixing devices. Brixing devices typically use a valve for each syrup, similar to a gate valve, in which two intersecting cylinders are used to control the flow of syrup through the valve. Brixing devices typically are one-piece units wherein a plurality of such valves are formed within a housing. Because of the one-piece design, a new brixing device must be purchased whenever syrups are added or deleted. Consequently, the ability to freely modify the number of beverages dispensed becomes cost-prohibitive. Finally, brixing devices typically couple the beverage dispensing head to the beverage sources with screws. This makes servicing very difficult in a bar environment.